The true history of
the Lochgelly Tawse(AKA School Belt or The Strap)By Margaret J Dick (daughter of John J
Dick & granddaughter of George W Dick)

Part 5 - Times Are Changing

~ John Dick Radio 4
interview with Franklin Engelman~

Now to the 70's and 'the
times they are a changing' Metrication and Decimalisation
The unions went from strength to strength and co-operatives
expanded taking over the shopping streets in many small
towns, Lochgelly included. Car production became automated
and private transport flourished. Birth control, test
tube babies and artificial insemination. Eating habits
changed with Marks and Spencers providing the first ready
meals, Frae Bentos pies in tins, Cremola Foam and Bird's
Angel Delight. To name but a few.

The Co-operative was a
large and very successful operation in Lochgelly they
seemed to have it all covered, Butchers, Bakers, Grocers,
Green Grocers, Hardware, Furniture, Toys, Gardening, Funeral
Services even some of the wee corner shops bought their
stock from the co-op and got their profit from keeping
the dividend, they didn't have Saddlery covered but it
was all motor vehicles now the store horse was long gone
and a few pet ponies wouldn't provide a living. So what
now?

Cowdenbeath High Street
was still thriving with independent businesses and people
were prepared to travel for shopping so John and Diana
Dick moved the business to Cowdenbeath leaving behind
Ironmongery, toys and gardening they stuck with Saddlery,
bags, briefcases and luggage and diversified into fancy
goods and suede clothing, dressing the local bright young
things in the latest suede mini skirts and waistcoats.
At this point my Brother Malcolm John Dick (born1956)
left school and joined the business as an apprentice Saddler.

Where the smacking process
begins:John Dick at his Lochgelly belt factory.

Demand for The Lochgelly
Tawse was still strong and it too was 'a changing' into
the belts final incarnation. Around 1975 Dad decided it
was time to embrace new technology the belt had been made
the same way since Robert Philp senior's time using tools
in use for hundreds of years, he had probably personally
made more belts than any of the other saddlers, apprentices,
cobblers or have a go's anywhere or it certainly felt
like it, his tennis elbow was 'giving him gip', it was
time to modernise. so he bought a 3 phase cutting press
and had cutters made in a new one size fits all metric
size, a couple of chomps and a belt was cut to shape,
complete with tails and hole just needing edged, polished
and creased. Hallelujah !

In 1978 Dad bought a
blocking machine and had a new stamp made for the belt
this stamp was branded on using heat unlike the earlier
stamps which were stamped on using a teep and hammer.

Public opinion was slowly
changing, from the mid 70's primary schools were using
the belt less than ever before, sales of the light weight
(L) belt used mainly by primary school teachers was dwindling,
the extra heavy (XL) leather was proving difficult to
source so at times only the medium (M) and heavy (H) were
available.

As the decade went on
it became harder and harder to source thick enough leather
to make the heavy and extra heavy tawse, the preference
for leaner and leaner meat, intensive farming and artificial
insemination meant cattle were being slaughtered younger
and there weren't so many bulls about to provide a regular
supply of leather this thick, Dad experimented with bonded
belts but they weren't very successful and sometimes split,
you couldn't machine stitch them as the stitching might
cause hand damage in use and hand stitching was prohibitively
expensive, eventually he managed to find a supplier of
buffalo necks and supply was resumed and if the look of
the belt had changed to a darker colour and a grainy finish
the teachers weren't complaining and it made no odds to
the children.

In 1976 Mrs Grace Campbell
whose son Gordon, age 6, attended St. Matthew's RC Primary
School in Bishopbriggs and Mrs Jane Cosans whose son Jeffrey,
age 15, attended Beath High School in Cowdenbeath, raised
an action in the European Court of Human Rights objecting
to corporal punishment in school, the court heard the
case in 1982 and found in favour of the action instructing
that the use of corporal punishment in UK schools be ended.
The use of the belt in state school was phased out from
1983 onwards. Corporal punishment was finally banned in
state schools in 1987 and continued in fee-paying schools
till it was banned there too in 1998.